Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

Chapter 428 Brand Store

The whole night of dancing with fish and dragons was very torturous for Zhu Lin. Fortunately, in the morning of the next day, Zhu Lin could have a good rest and continue to have a good sleep.

Because most of the others were drunk at yesterday's closing banquet, most of them were hungover and depressed the next morning.

Because of this, no one discovered that Zhu Lin and Cao Zhiqiang were having an affair, not even Xu Qingdong who was staying in the hotel.

What? Cao Zhiqiang’s two sisters?

Since the start of school was approaching, as early as last week, Cao Lili and Qiao Simei took the train back to the capital with Xiang Dongfang.

After all, there are still a lot of homework to be done. After they go back, they still have to do their homework under Xiang Dongfang's supervision.

Perhaps it was precisely because there were no two younger sisters to drag him down that the next afternoon, Cao Zhiqiang secretly went on a date with Zhu Lin outside behind everyone else's back, traveling around and enjoying the scenery, leaving behind a lot of joy and laughter.

During this period, both of them were very happy, especially Zhu Lin. She had never been so happy.

Sure enough, only when you meet the right person can you really make yourself happy. Even if this kind of date cannot be made public and must be secretive, it adds a sense of excitement.

Unfortunately, happy days are always short-lived. On the afternoon of the third day, the film crew, which had recovered, was about to return to the capital.

After all, school is about to start in September. Many people in the film crew are teachers from Nortel and must rush back early to prepare for the start of school.

In order not to attract attention, Zhu Lin returned to Beijing with others by train instead of flying.

Traveling with Zhu Lin was director Xu Qingdong, who also took the train together.

It can be said that except for Cao Zhiqiang himself, who had to stay to deal with some matters, the other members of the entire filming crew had to take the train back to the capital together.

"Are you really not going to come with us?" Xu Qingdong asked before leaving. "Although the film is finished, you still need to dub the soundtrack yourself. Don't you want to make the film earlier and release it earlier?"

Cao Zhiqiang chuckled: "No rush, I plan to release this film on National Day, October 1st. There is still some time before the release date, so you can take your time."

Xu Qingdong laughed: "October 1st is a good time, but at that time, military-themed movies are usually released. Are you sure that our love-themed movie can be released normally and that it will be released on October 1st?

Will it be released?"

"Not sure." Cao Zhiqiang shook his head, "But I have to give it a try."

"Actually, it can be done earlier." Xu Qingdong said, "The film is well shot. It just needs a little editing and the dubbing and soundtrack is completed, and then it can be applied for distribution.

Don't you have a good relationship with the director of the Film Bureau? There should be no problem in releasing it as soon as possible.

After all, our movie doesn’t have any sensitive parts, so China Film will definitely pass it.

If we invite the leaders of China Film Group to have a meal, it might be released in mid-September."

What Xu Qingdong said is not nonsense, it is indeed possible.

Because the review of movies during this period was actually quite fast, especially if it was relevant.

Of course, once the movie has been reviewed, China Film Company has the final say as to when it will be released.

Cao Zhiqiang has such a good relationship with the director of the Film Bureau. As long as he says something there, China Film Company will definitely give him face and jump in the queue to play.

This is the advantage of Beijing and the power of relationships.

In Beijing, you can easily contact the leaders of units such as the Film Bureau and China Film Company, and it is easy to jump in line.

If you were a film studio in other places, you wouldn't have this convenience, so you would have to wait in line slowly to submit their films for review. Many films may have to wait a year or even two years before they are released.

For film producers, naturally the sooner the film is released, the better.

Because the earlier it is released, it means the earlier it gets the distribution fee, and the financial pressure will be much less.

During this period of film distribution, the film companies first spent their own money to shoot the film, and then sent it to China Film Company for distribution. China Film Company would only give you a buyout price based on the quality of the film after review.

China Film's buyout price is currently as high as 900,000 and as low as 500,000.

However, this money will only be given before the movie is released. If your movie is not scheduled to be released in the near future, usually within a month, this money will not be given.

It can be seen from this that the longer the film is under pressure from China Film, the greater the financial pressure will be.

It doesn't matter to some big film studios, they are public institutions anyway and the government pays for them.

But for those with a contracting operation like Cao Zhiqiang, it's different. The financial pressure is all on Cao Zhiqiang.

Therefore, Xu Qingdong hopes that the movie will be released as soon as possible. It is actually for Cao Zhiqiang's benefit and can reduce financial pressure.

As for the schedule, in fact, there is no such thing as a prime time slot in China, because overall the box office of movies is very good.

This is because at this time, the penetration rate of domestic TV sets was not high, and there were not many good TV programs, so the most popular form of entertainment for the people was actually movies.

Movies at this time usually take place in the evening, and in the evening, when workers or people from public institutions get off work, they almost always want to go to the cinema to watch a movie.

Therefore, during this period, domestic movie theaters were crowded almost every day at night, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, when they were almost full.

It can be said that even if a bad movie is released, there will still be many viewers paying for it.

Cao Zhiqiang has watched movies several times before. From his point of view, nine out of ten movies released in China at this time are bad movies. Cao Zhiqiang was even speechless after watching many of them.

But even those movies that left Tsao speechless or even uncomfortable, many people watched them with gusto.

It can be seen from this how high the acceptance level of the people was at this time.

Of course, Cao Zhiqiang doesn't think it's because people's aesthetic standards are poor. He can only say that people are too lacking in entertainment, so even some bad movies are better than nothing.

However, if it is a really good movie, the audience's enthusiasm for watching the movie will be high, and the movie theaters will be full.

Usually when this happens, movie theaters usually extend the show time.

At this time, there was no such thing as a secret key, and there was almost no sense of anti-theft, so copies were sent directly to major movie theaters.

Therefore, at this time, as long as the movie theater feels that the movie is good and relatively popular, in order to make money, the movie theater itself can increase the number of screenings and the screening time at will.

Anyway, no matter whether the movie is a hit or not, the movie studio will not be affected, after all, it is the buyout price.

However, if the movie is a hit, the actors and directors will benefit from it and gain a lot of popularity.

Just like Cong Shan, she was originally just a little-known ordinary student at the Central Academy of Drama, but because she starred in "The Wrangler" during her schooling, she suddenly became famous all over the country.

Although Cong Shan is still a student and cannot join a film studio as a formal actress and cannot receive a formal monthly salary, she can receive free subsidies for every film she makes.

Of course, her fame came and went quickly.

If nothing unexpected happened, after Cong Shan graduated, her previous halo had no effect, so she had to perform in plays at the Youth Art Theater, and she always played a walk-on role.

To put it bluntly, the reason why Cong Shan lost everyone so quickly was because her acting skills were not good enough, and there was no backstage and no one to support her.

Just like "Shaolin Temple", the shepherdess in "Shaolin Temple" was also very popular at this time, but because her acting skills were flawless after all, and there were no consistent good works, she quickly disappeared from everyone's mind.

Therefore, the key to a real big star is to have continuous popularity and continuous good works. Otherwise, even if you can be popular for a while, you will be slapped on the beach by the waves behind you.

This is especially true in the film and television industry in the 1980s.

In Cao Zhiqiang's opinion, there were actually many good actors in China in the 1980s.

For example, Zhu Lin, such as Gong Xue, these are all great beauties whose looks are not inferior to those of female stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and their acting skills are not bad either.

But due to luck, backstage and other factors, he soon disappeared from everyone, which I have to say is a pity.

But now, at least as for Zhu Lin, he felt that he would no longer be ignored by everyone. He would definitely let Zhu Lin shine with his due charm and become a real big star, and he must be an international one.

There is no way, who made Zhu Lin his woman now.

With him standing behind him, even if she is a good-for-nothing woman, he can still force her to become a big star, not to mention Zhu Lin's own conditions are very good.

"Okay, Lao Xu, don't mention these anymore." Cao Zhiqiang chuckled, "I have my own sense of control regarding the release. You go back and have a rest first. Then wait until I return to the capital, and we will operate it properly."

Xu Qingdong nodded: "Okay, since you have something to do, I won't hinder you, but how long will it take for you to return to the capital?"

"It won't be long." Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile, "It can take as little as one or two days, as long as three to five days. I will be able to go back soon."

Xu Qingdong said: "Okay, then I'll wait for you in the capital!"

Cao Zhiqiang smiled and nodded: "Okay!"

In this way, after saying goodbye to Xu Qingdong, Cao Zhiqiang briefly said goodbye to Zhu Lin and others.

After sending the people away, Cao Zhiqiang went directly to Yuhong Machinery Factory.

The reason is simple. He wants to have a formal negotiation, or formal cooperation, with Director Wang of Yuhong Machinery Factory.

Speaking of which, ever since Li Youfu told Cao Zhiqiang that Director Wang secretly used the train transportation quotas of Yuhong Machinery Factory and Hongguang Machinery Factory and used Li Youfu's connections to bring in private goods, Cao Zhiqiang immediately told Hongguang Machinery Factory

Factory Manager Li made a phone call and comforted Factory Manager Li first.

After that, Cao Zhiqiang found Factory Director Wang and asked him to stop the incident of bringing in private goods, and analyzed it in detail with him, saying that the incident of bringing in textiles was risky, low-profit, and very unfair.

It's a good deal, let him stop doing it now.

As for the unsaleable products of the cotton spinning factory where Mrs. Wang works, and the poor profitability of Yuhong Machinery Factory, Cao Zhiqiang came to think of a solution.

However, the so-called solution must be found after Cao Zhiqiang finished filming this movie.

During the filming of the movie, I hope that Director Wang can temporarily suppress his restless heart and do nothing for the time being.

Director Wang was indeed very obedient. After all, he knew that Cao Zhiqi was different from Li Youfu, so when he found out that Cao Zhiqiang knew about this, he immediately decided to call it quits.

No, it should be said that Factory Director Wang is not giving up, he really plans not to do it anymore.

After all, in this matter, Director Wang actually made a mistake, and Cao Zhiqiang took advantage of it.

If Cao Zhiqiang reported it, Director Wang would be doomed.

Therefore, Director Wang never thought that Cao Zhiqiang really wanted to cooperate with him, and thought that the other party was letting him off for the sake of Director Li.

Fortunately, Director Wang and his wife made all the money they made from the few business deals that Director Wang secretly asked Li Youfu to do.

That money is nothing to a factory, but in the hands of a family, it is a huge sum of money, so Director Wang is actually quite satisfied.

It is precisely because of this that Director Wang is more enthusiastic about Cao Zhiqiang's film crew and almost responds to every request.

There is no way, the handle is in human hands.

Director Wang originally thought that after the filming of the movie was completed, Cao Zhiqiang would follow him back.

But he never expected that Cao Zhiqiang would not go back with him, but would come to see him again, still wanting to discuss the so-called business cooperation.

"Business cooperation?" Factory Director Wang frowned, "What kind of business cooperation?"

"Open a brand store." Cao Zhiqiang said.

"Brand store?" Director Wang was stunned, "What do you mean?"

Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile: "The so-called brand stores are to set up sales departments, or stores, in many places.

Then, these stores have uniform signage, uniform decoration, uniform clothing and uniform service quality of waiters.

Anyway, it must look high-end, grand, and upscale, and it must give people the feeling that everything inside is a luxury item.

Because the signboard and decoration style are the same, and they only sell products of one brand and not other brands, they are also called brand stores.

For example, you only sell one brand of clothes, one brand of shoes, one brand of jewelry, etc. Anyway, all the products in the store are of the same brand and have the same name as the store sign.

The product itself is not important, what is important is the brand itself!

We don’t just sell products, we actually sell brands!

Specifically, we need to first establish a clothing company, and then use this clothing company to establish and build a brand.

For the time being, I decided to name this brand "Rain of Love", which can be used to borrow the inspiration from the movie I shot.

The Rain Love brand does not produce its own clothing for the time being, but only designs clothing, and then sends the designs to other clothing factories, where they place orders.

For example, you can place a partial clothing order with your wife's fourth cotton spinning factory and ask them to produce clothing for us and put our brand on it.

As for us, we purchase these clothes and sell them in our own stores.

In other words, although we are a clothing company in name, we do not produce our own clothing for the time being. We are only responsible for design and sales.

The design part is that we design the clothing style and let other manufacturers produce it for us.

Sales are the top priority, which is what I call the problem of brand stores.

Brand stores actually mean buying or renting stores one by one in the city center, and then decorating them in a unified style, with the same signboard.

The signboard of this store is tentatively "Yuzhilian", and the products sold there are only "Yuzhilian" brand products, which can include ready-made clothes, shoes, hats, scarves and other clothing-related products.

This kind of store with a unified sign and style should not only be found in one city, but should also be exactly the same in other cities.

For example, there should be a store in Beijing, as well as in places like Jinling, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. They should all have the same signboard, uniform decoration, and sell the same kind of products.

At the beginning, we don’t need to be so anxious. Now the two cities of Beijing and Jinling City are linked.

Then, in this "Rain Love" clothing company, your Yuhong Machinery Factory holds 51% of the shares, and I personally hold 49% of the shares.

In this way, this Yuzhilian Clothing Company can also be regarded as a subsidiary company of your Yuhong Machinery Factory."

"Wait a minute!" Director Wang frowned.

"Our Yuhong Machinery Factory is under the administration of the Machinery Industry Bureau, and the garment factory is under the administration of the Light Industry Bureau. The management departments are all different. How can we set up a garment factory? This is simply not feasible.

I have never heard of a machinery factory setting up a subordinate garment factory. This is absolutely not possible."

Cao Zhiqiang was stunned for a moment, and then said: "That doesn't matter, the clothing factory can't do it, then we can set up a, um, department store, that's okay, right?

Don't say it can't be done. When I was at Hongguang Machinery Factory, I established a subsidiary Hongguang Department Store in the name of Hongguang Machinery Factory. We can do it, don't say you can't do it here."

Factory Director Wang nodded: "For a department store, this is no problem. But if it doesn't work, we can also do it in the name of the factory's sales department. It's not a problem.

But I'm curious, why should we, Yuhong Machinery Factory, set up a brand store like this?

Isn’t this completely inappropriate?”

Cao Zhiqiang shook his head: "Whether we are talking to each other is secondary, it is not important at all. The key is that this store can make money."

After a brief pause, Cao Zhiqiang continued: "Let me put it this way, if this joint venture department store is regarded as a subsidiary of your factory, then it can naturally use the train transportation quota of your Yuhong Machinery Factory to transport its own products.

The goods should be transported to the locations of other brother units, such as the Hongguang Machinery Factory in the capital, do you understand now?"

(End of chapter)